Entertainment

Robert Downey Jr. might just star in a remake of one of Alfred Hitchcock‘s most beloved thrillers.

Deadline reports Downey is interested in starring in and producing a big-screen remake of Alfred Hitchcock‘s Vertigo, with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight — who will reportedly be writing the next Star Wars film — adapting the screenplay.

Downey would be playing the role made famous by famed Hitchcock collaborator Jimmy Stewart: a detective who retires after developing the titular symptom when a colleague falls from a rooftop during a chase. The former gumshoe is subsequently tasked with minding a friend’s wife, but the simple case turns out to be anything but.

There’s no word yet on who will fill the considerable shoes of the legendary filmmaker, but the trade reports the Hitchcock Estate is having a say in the project and was leaning toward Paramount — the studio that released the original.

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Netflix has reunited most of the original cast for a 30th anniversary nostalgia blow-out, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always, and a brand-new trailer is more than enough to get fans pumped.

The special stars Walter E. Jones, reprising as the Black Ranger Zack Taylor; Catherine Sutherland as the Pink Ranger Kat Hillard; David Yost‘s Blue Ranger Billy Cranston; Steve Cardenas‘ Red Ranger Rocky DeSantos; Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell, the second Yellow Ranger; and the second Black Ranger Adam Park, again played by Johnny Yong Bosch.

The star who played the original Yellow Ranger, Thuy Trang, died in a car accident in 2001. The trailer sees Charlie Kersh as Minh Kwan, the daughter of Trang’s Trini Kwan, explaining her mother was killed by Rita Repulsa, the villainess again played by Barbara Goodson.

Richard Steven Horvitz is even back as the voice of the manic, friendly robot Alpha 5.

It is not known how or if the series will address the loss of another original Rangers star, the Green Ranger Jason David Frank, who died by suicide at 49 last November.

According to Netflix, “Thirty years after the wise and powerful Zordon formed the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the team comes face to face with a familiar threat from the past. In the midst of a global crisis, they are called on once again to be the heroes the world needs.”

The movie debuts April 19.

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While visiting the White House this week, Mindy Kaling was made to feel little bit more at home — or at work, technically — thanks to the Marine Corps Band.

The actress, author and producer was on hand to receive a National Medal of Arts award from President Joe Biden on Wednesday, along with Seinfeld alum/Marvel movie star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, musicians Bruce Springsteen and Gladys Knight, and author Amy Tan.

On Thursday, Kaling posted to Instagram her greeting when she arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: the uniformed band playing the theme to The Office.

Kaling played flighty customer service rep Kelly Kapoor on the show, which she also co-produced during its run.

Her former co-star Jenna Fischer, who played Pam Beesly, was quick to comment of the honor, “That would destroy me. Omg.”

Next to a photo with Biden, Kaling had written in part, “Yesterday, I went with my family to receive the medal at the White House. To hear the President speak about my parents, their journey to the United States, my late mother’s dreams for me, and the power of comedy to make people understand each other was almost too much to take in. It didn’t feel real!”

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(SPOILERS) If anyone deserved a bit of redemption in the Star Wars universe, it’s actor Ahmed Best. The actor, who played Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy — and who has admitted the backlash from it nearly cost him his life by suicide — got possibly the biggest redemption of all in the eyes of fans in the latest episode of The Mandalorian.

Ending months of speculation, it was revealed that Best’s Jedi character Kelleran Beq was the one who saved poor little Grogu from the great Jedi Purge in a flashback scene set during the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Beq was seen dispatching clone troopers left and right — literally, with a lightsaber in each hand at one point — as he escorts “Baby Yoda” from the burning Jedi temple.

The redemption wasn’t lost on the actor, who took to social media Wednesday with a gym picture — wearing an Episode I hat and Jedi symbol T-shirt no less — showing his appreciation to fans.

“Gratitude! Good to be back,” Best began. “There is so much to say and share. It’s going to take a couple of days. But, for now, I’ll just say thank you to all that have held me up and made me better.”

Incidentally, the character is the same one he played in Jedi Temple Challenge, a kids game show that ran on Disney+.

While Jar Jar was pilloried when Episode I came out in 1999, younger fans who grew up watching the prequels on DVD have since softened on the klutzy gungan.

That said, the “hate and venom” at the time was hard on Best, who has since admitted he once contemplated suicide because of it.

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Courteney Cox is proving that fastidious Monica Geller isn’t just a character she played on TV, it’s a fundamental part of her personality.

The Friends alum, 58, shared a comedic video to Instagram on Wednesday in which she is seen cleaning her Hollywood Walk of Fame star — as well as the stars of some of her A-list pals.

“Someone’s gotta do it,” she captioned the clip, set to Dolly Parton‘s classic song “9 to 5,” while channeling Monica, one of TV’s most beloved clean freaks.

In the video, Cox watches a few people walk across her star before she steps out to give it a wipe and yell at the passersby, “You can go around!”

After taking care of her own star, she proceeds to clean the stars of Laura Dern, Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

“Thanks for keeping us clean, Court!!” Witherspoon wrote in the comments, while another of Cox’s Friends co-stars, Lisa Kudrow, replied, “Only the best thing ever.”

Cox received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February. The Scream 6 actress was joined by her daughter Coco, partner Johnny McDaid and pals Aniston, Kudrow and Dern, among others, at the dedication ceremony.

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Netflix dropped the first full-length trailer to its Bridgerton prequel series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. In it, viewers see India Amarteifio playing a younger version of Golda Rosheuvel‘s monarch, who is about to step into the thorny world of royalty. 

The young Charlotte has a meet-cute with her husband-to-be, the young King George (Corey Mylchreest), as she apparently tries to flee the royal compound. She soon finds living like a queen isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. “It is time we are united as a society,” George’s mother, Princess Augusta (Michelle Fairley), informs Charlotte. “You will make lots of babies. As many babies as possible for my son.”  

“Your marriage cannot go wrong!” she later admonishes the young royal-to-be.

After a rocky start, the young royals eventually hit it off, but George is hiding secrets from her. “Fight with me. Fight for me!” she urges him. 

Rosheuvel is also seen bookending the flashback story, which comes to Netflix on May 4.

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If you’ve seen all of Tom Cruise‘s Mission: Impossible movies, your attention to detail will apparently be rewarded by director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie for the seventh installment: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

Not only does Henry Czerny return as Eugene Kittridge, the secret agent who pursued Cruise’s apparently rogue Ethan Hunt in the 1996 original film, but McQuarrie just added another familiar face — if you’ve got a pretty stout memory.

The filmmaker posted yet another Easter egg cast addition photo to his Instagram, showing Rolf Saxon, who played William Donloe in the first M:I film.

You’d be forgiven if neither name rings a bell, but Donloe was the poor CIA computer guy whose vault-like office Ethan Hunt dropped into from the ceiling in that memorable scene from the first film. After one of Hunt’s team members dosed Donloe with something to make him puke — repeatedly — he was forced out of his computer vault so Hunt could steal an important file.

If you have an even better memory, you might remember Kittridge keeping the breech quiet, saying of Donloe, “I want him manning a radar tower in Alaska by the end of the day. Just mail him his clothes.”

Apparently, Donloe’s clothes arrived safely.

Starring Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Vanessa Kirby, Rebecca Ferguson and Esai Morales, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One opens July 14.

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There is a disturbance in the Force. Just a day after Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof and Badlands writer Justin Britt-Gibson submitted a script for a Star Wars film, they’ve exited, Variety reports.

However, the trade says Steven Knight, the creator of the acclaimed crime drama Peaky Blinders, has stepped in and will be writing the Star Wars film project, slated to be directed by Ms. Marvel vet Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

While content from that galaxy far, far away continues to drop on Disney+, where The Mandalorian‘s third season is currently unfolding, it hasn’t been on the big screen since 2019, when the divisive “sequel trilogy” wrapped with Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.

While Lucasfilm remains characteristically mum, Variety says the project Knight is writing is expected to be announced, along with a title, at April’s Star Wars Celebration fan expo in London.

This purported shake-up is just the latest in recent weeks: The embattled Rogue Squadron, which was to be directed by Wonder Woman franchise filmmaker director Patty Jenkins, as well as an untitled work produced by Star Wars fan and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, were reportedly shelved by Lucasfilm.

Lucasfilm is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Stoner comedy kings Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong — a.k.a. Cheech & Chong — are teaming up for their first joint-screen collaboration in a decade, a biopic known for the time being as Untitled Cheech & Chong Project.

“We are excited to show the world how two dudes from completely different backgrounds got together, changed comedy, and made cannabis mainstream!” the duo said in a joint statement obtained by Entertainment Weekly.

Cheech & Chong rose to fame in the 1970s with their stand-up routines and Grammy-winning albums that centered on marijuana and counterculture before branching out into movies, starting with 1978’s Up in Smoke, followed by Things Are Tough All Over in 1982, Still Smokin’ in 1983 and The Corsican Brothers in 1984. They split up in 1985 but reunited sporadically projects like Cheech & Chong’s Animated Movie in 2013.

Marin also pursued an acting career that included a regular role in the CBS series Nash Bridges and films including the 1996 Kevin Costner movie Tin Cup. Chong was arrested in 2003 for selling drug paraphernalia and spent almost a year in jail.

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Netflix has released the first-look trailer for its To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before spinoff, XO, Kitty. Anna Cathcart returns as Lara Jean’s younger sister, Kitty Song Covey, in the 10-episode series, which finds the younger Covey sibling “jetting off on her very own adventure,” per the streamer. “After making things happen for her sister…it’s time for Kitty to experience an epic story of her own. She’ll learn quickly that love is a lot harder when it’s your own heart on the line.” John Corbett, Sarayu Blue, Anthony Keyvan, Gia Kim, Sang Heon Lee, Peter Turnwald and Regan Aliyah round out the main cast. XO, Kitty streams May 18th on Netflix…

Variety reports HBO Max is developing a drama series based on the life of Heidi Fleiss, the former madam who ran an upscale prostitution ring in Los Angeles that earned her the nickname “The Hollywood Madam.” She was arrested in the early 1990s on multiple charges and ultimately served nearly two years in prison before appearing on reality TV shows like Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew and Celebrity Big Brother. Fleiss’ story was previously depicted in the 2004 USA Network made-for-TV movie Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss, starring Jamie-Lynn Sigler…

Dick Van Dyke is reportedly recovering from minor injuries he suffered in possible weather-related car crash in Malibu, according to TMZ. Police responded to a call of a single-car accident last Wednesday morning, and when deputies arrived they found Van Dyke, 97, behind the wheel of a 2018 Lexus LS 500 that he’d crashed into a gate, sources tell the gossip website. The film and TV icon was reportedly bleeding from the nose and mouth and might have suffered a concussion, the sources tell TMZ, adding that he was treated at the scene by paramedics and returned to his home…

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